(CNN) – Former President Bill Clinton penned an op-ed published Sunday in Iowa's largest newspaper making a final appeal for President Barack Obama with just a couple days left until polls close on November 6.

Clinton - who has been highly visible on the campaign trail for the president and stumped with Obama Sunday morning in battleground New Hampshire - laid out his case to re-elect his Democratic descendant in The Des Moines Register.

In the op-ed pointedly titled "Romney wants to undo progress Obama made," Clinton wrote that no president could have fully recovered in just four years an "economy losing 800,000 jobs a month in the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression" when Obama took office in 2009.

"But since the private sector job losses ended 31 months ago, the economy has produced 5.2 million private-sector jobs," Clinton wrote ticking off signs of a recovering economy including a drop in the unemployment rate and a four-year high of auto and new home sales.

Clinton wrote that while Obama is "creating a more inclusive, fairer America" - pointing to the president's signing of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act and executive order allowing children of undocumented immigrants to stay in the United States without fear of deportation for those who obtain higher education or join the military - Romney "plans to reduce taxes again on the wealthiest Americans and make large cuts in programs that help the middle class and poor children and spark new economic opportunity."

The Des Moines Register threw their support behind Republican nominee Mitt Romney in late October - a surprising endorsement coming from a newspaper that has not backed a Republican for president in over 40 years.

While the Iowa paper's endorsement praised both Romney and Obama, the decision, the editorial board wrote, ultimately came down to one question. "Which candidate could forge the compromises in Congress to achieve these goals? When the question is framed in those terms, Mitt Romney emerges the stronger candidate."

Obama picked up the endorsement of Ohio's Chillicothe Gazette on Sunday, which endorsed Republican Sen. John McCain in 2008. The Gazette wrote in its endorsement that "President Obama has proved his ability to lead in tough times. He's made decisions unpopular with Democrats, while moving forward on items with Republicans."

Clinton will also make stops in North Carolina and Minnesota Sunday for the president and heads to Pennsylvania Monday as part of the Obama campaign's final push for the White House in 2012.
–CNN's Ashley Killough contributed to this report.

Bain owns the Register, hence the endorsement. Does CNN do any type of research at all anymore?

November 4, 2012 05:40 pm at 5:40 pm |

Buster the Dog

The Chillicothe Gazette...now the thats something you can hang your hat on....and throw in the face of republicans....curious why is Clinton doing all the heavy work?...Hillary has said shes not interested in 2016.....

November 4, 2012 05:41 pm at 5:41 pm |

Gurgyl

Yes, on OBAMA12.

November 4, 2012 05:57 pm at 5:57 pm |

Susan

The devastation caused by Sandy has proved to produce some great heroes. People who have helped their neighbors, opened up their homes and shared the little they have with those who have lost more. I imagine what each candidate would do if they were ordinary citizens caught in one of the disaster areas. Despite all the knocks Obama takes about his "fairness" ideas and asking those who have the most to give to those who need the least, this philosophy tells me that he would be one of the heroes opening his home and sharing what he has with those in need. Meanwhile's, Romney's worship of pure free market capitalism and cuts in aid to the "takers", suggest to me that if he were lucky to be left with more than his neighbors, he would be hang up a sign selling off access to water, heat or shelter for those who could afford to purchase it.

One might object that Romney is in fact very charitable as shown by his income takes. Yet, when he talks of charity, Romney's sole charity on his forms is in the form of tithes to his church, a donation that is required as a condition of being a member of the Church of Latter Day Saints (and based on recent information, charity that it seems Romney got more out of personally than the church did as a result of his borrowing of the tax-exempt status). While Obama gives a similar percentage of his income to charity, we hear less about it, because it is more evenly distributed amongst groups, and because unlike Romney, Obama doesn't seek to get public credit for the charity he gives, instead he does it for the sake of giving....quietly and privately, yet generously.

Sometimes boiling down complex philosophies to simple examples helps put a decision in perspective. If you were in the storm and lost everything, who would you want on your side-the man who shares the little he has, or the man who gives charity only as required, and who values profits over people (as repeatedly shown in his business practices). Now ask yourself, why would you want anything different for the person we select to lead this country through our most difficult moments?

November 4, 2012 06:06 pm at 6:06 pm |

Frank - Florida

Obama can't win on his own record. He needs Clinton's record to win. (Sad)

November 4, 2012 06:21 pm at 6:21 pm |

BinaryTooth

... Because Obama can't do it himself. Obama can achieve nothing on his own. Maybe that's why he said "you didn't build that." Starting to make sense.

November 4, 2012 06:46 pm at 6:46 pm |

GI Joe

Romney is a bully and Ryan will cause your granny to die soon. How can you vote for those two? I can't.

November 4, 2012 07:07 pm at 7:07 pm |

toddcourt1

I used to be a Democratic Senatorial District Delegate and this trickle up poverty isn't what I signed on for. Obama is no Clinton. What Bill Clinton had Barack Obama couldn't even borrow to get. Clinton had true bi-partisanship; Obama couldn't bribe a vote from legislators, even in the Democratic Senate! We don't need another 4 years of this. We don't need a do-over president; we need a do-er. The bottom line is, who can make America make more money. Obama couldn't make a profit in a lemonade stand; he'd give away all the product and earnings and have too much overhead. I want a real businessman to turn our suffering economy into a surplus economy. I want someone who has proven success, and can demonstrate it in his own life. I want the same opportunities for my kids that my folks had for me, I want my kid to be able to find work when he graduates in four years. That's not going to happen under Obama. Just look at his record. Are college graduates able to find work? No. Obama's gotta go.
Elect Romney!
RR’12

Vote America Vote. That's really the only message that is important, there is no such thing as undecided anymore, vote, vote, vote. Take your brother and vote, take your sister, your mother, your grandparents and vote. America has to remain strong and united, don't let yourselves slip away from how far you come. Vote!